


proximate [discontinued]

by Kallos83



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Comedy, Domestic Fluff, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Lovers to Friends, M/M, Post-Break Up, omg they were roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-19
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 03:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13068588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallos83/pseuds/Kallos83
Summary: "Shane, you guys are obviously more than roommates!" Sara shouted pointedly, waving her cup of coffee at him, "I walked in on him sitting naked, on the couch, waiting for you to come back!""I mean-" Shane began.But Sara was having none of it, "And I just had to listen to the both of you argue for an hour over where to go for a movie this weekend!"





	1. new roommates

There are balls on his couch.

Naked, dry and hopefully clean ones.

To be fair, he doesn't see them at first- until a rather loud "Oh. My God." sends him abandoning what's left of the groceries and bounding to the front door.

Sara stumbled backwards out of the threshold with hands over her eyes.

When Shane looked over her shoulder into the living room, laughter bolted out of his body. His eyes started watering as he reached a level of silent guffaw that could only be induced by a very oblivious and naked Ryan Bergara draped across the couch, entirely lost in his own world. Headphones left him unbothered as he propped his phone up on his stomach with an arm tucked under his head, the other casually scratching at a calf folded over his knee.

This was a rather interesting position since it left him absolutely exposed. Without a doubt, Shane was immensely entertained.

He strode straight up to the couch and waved a hand over Ryan's face. Expectedly, this closer inspection allowed him a better view of, well, everything.

Ryan jumped and flailed his one foot way down the couch onto the floor, hands immediately flying over his junk.

Incredibly aware of his looming position from the perspective of a mortified Ryan Bergara, Shane smirked, "You didn't tell me we were joining a nudist colony."

Ryan spends all of the next six hours in which Sara is over in his room, while Shane spends them thinking of the new  _member_  of the house he had the pleasure of meeting.


	2. you've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> who doesn't need a lil exposition every now and again

There are a couple of things Jake Bergara knows about his brother, despite their busy schedules having caused their relationship to pull at the seams collectively over the years.

  1. He absolutely loves Sky High, despite any shape or form of denial he may provide. Given the number of times Jake had been forced to watch it when they were home alone, his brother definitely loves it. On his 18th birthday, Ryan had come home entirely drunk and sobbed to Jake about how unfair it was that Layla and Warren did not end up together. The next few minutes of uncontrollable bawling had also consisted of Ryan admitting he too would like to have the superpower of turning into a guinea pig. 
  2. Comfort food never travels out of the realm of vegetables, which made for Ryan’s under the weather periods to have very sporadic changes in the fridge. (Monday: soda, sweets and leftovers. Monday _evening_ : addition of half a head of lettuce that had been bitten into and a dozen of cherry tomatoes.)
  3. Date night has always and will always be on Saturday. All through relationships, even from the start, that had been the night purely reserved for dates. He had even missed Lakers’ games for them. Whatever it was, probably an insane spirit that had possessed him, (“it’s called love, Jake”) sure was organized. Anyway, his point was, if Ryan was spending time with someone on Saturday night, Jake could bet his life that it would be with a date. 



So when his brother tells him he has plans that coming Saturday and specifies it is not of a romantic nature, Jake in the very least, is insulted. The  _ gall _ of this man. 

“You have plans..." began Jake, the ironing board the only thing between him and his laptop.   


Ryan shrugged, “Yeah."   


Pressing his iron harder into the board, he imagined the lie on his shirt being Ryan’s apparent lie being pressed to a pulp, “with your roommate." He smells the faint scent of his dress shirt burning underneath and quickly brings the iron up. It’s only slightly charred. “Like the one from work?"    


“Yeah," replied his brother, with the same tone he’d used to remind Jake to put the iron on the medium setting on. 

He was  _ so _ going to iron this out.   


Donning his insinuating voice and avoiding his older brother’s gaze, Jake began, “the guy you sit next to and go on mini lunch dates with to argue about what constitutes as supernatural and end up sounding like an old married couple?"   


“Mmhmm," Ryan hummed absent-mindedly, toying with something on his desk.    


Arms akimbo, Jake placed the iron down on the metal rest. Jesus, does he have to do all the work around here? “Ryan, that’s weird."   


Ryan looked up, eyebrows knotting together, “What? Why?"   


“I don’t think you realize that only crazy people go out with their roommates, much less with one they spend 24/7 around." Jake thought of how he would very much give birth to an alien baby than be a take part in any of his roommates’ activities.   


Ryan gestured wildly as he protested, “Yeah but Shane’s not just a roommate! He’s-"   


“Your boyfriend?" The smugness that catches in Jake’s voice is blatant and unapologetic, which earns him an equally disapproving look from his brother.   


“No!" Ryan shot down, picking the thing on his desk up again “and you can’t compare him to  _ your _ roommates! They leave the house in shambles just by looking at a room and- God! I can smell last month’s dinner from here.”   


Jake rolls his eyes at Ryan’s attempt to change the subject and persisted on the matter. “You go out with him on what used to be your date night." He sips on his proverbial tea and stares downward as he folds the sleeve of his shirt.   


“So what? If I start going out with my mom on Saturday night does that mean I have an Oedipus complex?" He doesn’t have to look up to see that Ryan’s eyebrow is quirked in the most obnoxious way possible.    


"Well that’s different- you don’t look at your mom like you look at Shane."   


“I can’t believe we’re talking about whether I’m in a relationship or not; I assure you, I’d know if I was dating someone."   


“Really? Seems like you can’t even tell that you’re in love with him."   


“If I really am in love, aren’t things supposed to fall into place? Isn’t that what everyone claims?"   


“I mean-"   


“Well, tell that to 8am Ryan who tried to make breakfast for two but ended up with three cups of ramen noodle soup, one sad strip of bacon and sandwiches that tasted like they’ve been through war."   


“I’m not saying making breakfast for the other person is domestic as fuck but..."   


“Oh my god." With an exasperated eye roll, Ryan rattled off a shoddy excuse to bring their weekly Skype calls to a close. 

This was how things usually went with his emotionally constipated dweeb of a brother, specifically for things he liked. Like Sky High, he could deny how much space it took up in his heart, claim it was as appealing as the devil’s asshole, but still reserve time to spend with it. Unbelievable.

Jake sighed, “wait.” The gentleness of it was needy enough to cause the furrow between Ryan’s forehead to deepen. 

“I just don’t want Shane to be shoved in place of Helen, y’know?” Jake began, setting aside his shirt, “Breakups are hard, especially when there hasn’t been time to ease its effects. If Shane’s there to help you adjust to the single life or a new relationship,” Jake waves Ryan’s protest off with the iron in hand, “please remember to take things at your own pace, okay?”

The expression on Ryan’s face melts, much like stone out on the beach- it doesn’t. Jake can’t say he was surprised by his brother’s unperturbed reaction- that’d been the standard since his breakup five weeks ago. Then again, Ryan wouldn’t even have picked the call up five weeks ago. This was a form of progress, albeit slightly teenage-like.

Since then, much had changed. He moved in with Shane, a relatively newly single man as well. Whatever was going on between the two, he hoped to God it wasn’t going to induce any more drunken coming of age movie ranting.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fellas, is it gay if you fiddle with merchandise from a show you co-host with someone you're around 25/7 while you argue with your little brother about whether you're dating said co-host?


End file.
